Self Publishing Quality Pbook

[Marcy]

Even though this forum is really more about ebooks, I'm hoping some of your authors out there might know of a service that I'm looking for.

I just found a bunch of stories, poems and song lyrics written by my grandfather. I would love to gather them together and self-publish them into a nice volume, with fancy leather binding. I would only want to make a couple of copies -- one to save for my son who is named for my grandfather, and a copy for me, my Mom and my brother. I have no interest in trying to sell these.

Is there a service that does this? My google searches turn up mainly ebook publishing and services like Lulu. I thought I had hit on something with Heirloom Publishing, but it turned out to be for cookbooks.

[gmw]

I'm not sure where you'd go for fancy leather binding. As you've already found, most of the bigger print on demand services are about mass producing (relatively) low-cost books. I use Lightning Source, and they do offer hardcover production (laminate over board, no dust jacket) for reasonable cost. I've been impressed with the quality of the paperback books they produce, but haven't used their hardcover service yet.

You might investigate some of those photo-book services. We've used Snapfish a couple of times. They produced a good quality cloth-hardcover book each time ... the photo quality was good - not great, but good. (I just checked, and they even offer a leather cover, but not that fancy to my eye.) The interface for design isn't really appropriate for books with a high density of text ... but you could consider using photos/scans of the original hand-written text (assuming it was hand-written). And/or intersperse the text with photos of your grandfather and so on. Just a thought - because I don't have a better one to offer right now.

[Pulpmeister]

You'll need two services: a printer, to print the pages; and then a bookbinder, to provide the binding you want.

Bookbinding is a craft practiced still by quite a few people. If you want embossed or tooled leather, I'm sure you'll find it in any big city.

Star with the bookbinder first, take his or her advice on the rest.

[Dr. Drib]

Since you wish to pay for a quality product, you should also consider acid-free paper (called archival paper).

Since your grandfather's papers are dear to you and your immediate family, you'll want something that will outlast your lifetime and also be available to your descendents.

[AnemicOak]

I've never done much research into it, but there used to be some printers/publishers that specialized in printing family histories/genealogies that did things like higher end binding & very short press runs.

[Marcy]

I've continued googling and found one company that will do it for $500-1000/book. That was the range I was thinking of spending for all four books, especially as this is going to be <100 pages. I am continuing to search.

Thanks everyone for your input.

[CWatkinsNash]

I'm a couple days late, but I came across this one: http://www.bessenberg.com/print-on-demand.html

They have various quality leather binding available as part of their print-on-demand services.

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

I'm a couple days late, but I came across this one: http://www.bessenberg.com/print-on-demand.html

They have various quality leather binding available as part of their print-on-demand services.

Wow, this is exactly what I was looking for! Your google-fu is much greater than mine. Thanks!

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by Marcy

Wow, this is exactly what I was looking for! Your google-fu is much greater than mine. Thanks!

You're welcome!